CROSS COUNTRY: Club's best set of results in national relays

Last Saturday, runners from Rugby & Northampton Athletic Club recorded their best set of results in the annual England Cross-Country Relay Championships at Berry Hill, Mansfield.

R&N entered two U13 Girls teams, finishing 35th and 43rd. Team A consisted of Lara Turner, Jessica Kempton, Olivia Willison, all of which put in a fantastic performance and ran a combined time of 24:42.85.

Turner was the fastest for the girls, turning in an impressive time at a national level event of 7:57.35.

Emily Langley, Georgia Gercs and Jemima Lambert also impressed for the B team with a combined time of 25:09.40.

The U13 Boys fielded three teams, all of which ran very strongly with the A team finishing in an outstanding 29th position (22:55.95).

The team of Joseph Jones, Lewis Robson and Arthur Tilt, recorded the fastest time out of all the R&N athletes (7:06.15) in what was a fast final leg.

The other competitors for R&N in the U13 Boys race were Nicholas Marsh, Benjamin Westmoreland-Alexander, Lewis Nutt, Joshua Robson, James Darby and Louis Starr.

The races came thick and fast with Rugby and Northampton fielding two teams in the U15 Girls competition.

The teams of Elspeth Unit, Olivia Williams, Alice Bates, Sophia Hill, Abigail Thayanithy and Isobel Haynes finished in 33rd and 86th position – the standout performance came from Bates with an impressive time of 7:27.50.

It was in the U15 Boys race where the R&N athletes recorded their highest position at this level. Noah Bennett (6:28.65) led the team off, finishing a great first leg in 12th.

Finbar Myers then ran a strong second leg only dropping one place; Tom Tyler was able to hold this position and to bring the team home in 13th . This was an impressive result and a performance the U15 Boys A team should be very proud of.

The club also had B and C teams competing in this event and the B team again underlined the strength in depth Rugby and Northampton have in this age group, finishing in 32nd position.

The team consisted of Louis Buttrick, Aidan O’Brien and Lewis Panter.

The C team of Dominic Jones, Jasper Cooper and Oliver Cherrington also put in a good performance.

R&N fielded two teams in the U17 Women’s race and all six competitors – Lucy Stevens, Abigail Pearce, Molly Williams, Holly Walker, Olivia Reeves and Isabelle Rippon – ran excellently against this high level of competition.

The best result of the day came from the U17 Men. The A team was led off by Fergus Scott (9:00.20) who ended the first leg in sixth position.

Joe Vaughan (9:35.85) and then Adam Caulfield (9:19.25) ran extremely strongly and eventually came home in ninth – the best placing by a Rugby and Northampton male team at this National level.

The B team of Matthew Blomley, Cian Hutton and Matthew Everett finished in 65th position.

The final event that R&N took part in was the U20 Men’s race. English Schools’ 1500m champion, Josh Lay (08:39.80), currently studying at Loughborough University ran the first leg and brought the team back in fifth, 12 seconds behind the leading group.

Then came another brilliant performance from Muss-Ab Hassan (8:59.00) who pulled the team into bronze medal position.

Abedom Beyene (9:41.85) wasn’t quite able to hold this position but ran strongly to bring the team home in 12th place, rounding off a great day and fantastic event for Rugby and Northampton Athletic Club.